New Lunar Republic
Overview The New Lunar Republic was a short-lived, late Reconstruction Era clan that was a member state of the LittleBigPlanet Union. It is best known for its ambitious policies that aimed to make clans more constructive. History Foundation In the wake of waning political activity in the Union, the remaining influential clans in the Union were the young Dark Akatsuki, the aggressive Pride of the Fallen, and the minority Taurian Concordat. The New California Republic and Organization XIII were the other two member states, but they were both mostly indifferent to Union politics. All other Union states were observers with no vote. With too much apathy in the Union's government, former Union President M88youngling feared that the Union may collapse. M88youngling established the New Lunar Republic on May 21st, 2016LBP Union Census to try and gather support to stabilize the Union. M88youngling's testimony Recruitment M88youngling worked quickly to gather as many members as possible for the NLR, regardless of their skill level. The primary method of recruitment for the NLR involved waiting for dive in players to join, then immediately playing a recruitment level to force the players to see the level. Upon seeing the level, many players opted to join the NLR. While many didn't choose to join, this method garnered many unskilled players to the NLR's cause, quickly making the NLR the third largest clan in the Union next to Organization XIII, at one point even tying them in member count at 25 members. While most of the NLR's members were unskilled, relatively uninterested players, there were a few talented and influential members of the NLR, such as their representative Primevaliam. Swordfighting Tournament Dissatisfied with the Dark Akatsuki's failure to begin the LBPU Swordfighting Tournament as promised, the New Lunar Republic launched their own version of the tournament with their own arena on June 22nd, 2016. All battles of the tournament were recorded via cell-phone video, edited, and then uploaded to YouTube, making the New Lunar Republic hosted LBPU Swordfighting Tournament the first and only Union event to be video-recorded for the public. The tournament hosted several battles, but failed to be completed due to the unresponsiveness of many contestants.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LikafnQxwN0 Role in the Union Commission Following the resignation of the Union Protectors at the July 16th summit, the Union adopted the Commissioner Accord, an amendment that replaced the parliament with a council of Union clan leaders and co-leaders that had democratic legislative authority in the Union. M88youngling and Primevaliam thus became Union commissioners, giving the New Lunar Republic a say in the LBP Union Commission. M88youngling, under the NLR's ticket, pushed for legislation such as the Commissioner Administrative Solution. M88youngling also sought to pursue a police action against RazorsOnEdge, but this never panned out. Plans for this were referred to as "Operation Nightfall" by the NLR. M88youngling briefly considered circumventing the Commission with a black ops team, but this never occurred.Operation Nightfall - Plans Taurian Concordat "Lynching" Incident New Lunar Republic representative Primevaliam, within a day of the passage of the Commissioner Accord, was involved in an incident where a group composed of members of Pride of the Fallen, the Dark Akatsuki, and other Union members bullied Taurian Concordat leaders Halkoonen and Sevi432 over Kik messenger. The group, labeled a "lynch mob" by M88youngling, attempted to vote Taurian Concordat out of the Union without a majority vote and verbally harassed them to the point where Taurian Concordat no longer felt welcome in the Union and seceded. Infuriated, M88youngling refused to nominate Primevaliam for a Union presidential election. Primevaliam was capable of nominating himself for president, but he did not. M88youngling laid out a list of conditions that must be met in order for him to nominate Prime, but it is not known if any of these conditions were met.M88youngling's Journal #2 (pp. 39 - 40)LBPU Website News - NLR Announcement - Deal Sunrise On August 25th, 2016, M88youngling locked all Union resources such as the Novus Carta, the website, and several Union levels in an attempt to prevent the Visarian Mandate from claiming control over the Union via their influence of Primevaliam, Pride of the Fallen and the Dark Akatsuki. After this occurred, the New Lunar Republic was disbanded. Demographics Population The New Lunar Republic had careful records keeping track of its population, which are much more complete than any other clan currently known. Its population data was kept track of through a Google Sheets spreadsheet. Across the New Lunar Republic's three or four month period of existence, the average population of the clan was approximately 16 members. Its population peaked on July 26th, 2016, reaching 25 members. This tied the clan for third most populated with Organization XIII. The New Lunar Republic was also careful to enforce activity rules in the clan, and often kicked out inactive members. This resulted in fluctuations in population as time went on, but the member count never dropped below 13 after June 14th.New Lunar Republic Roster The department responsible for keeping track of this data was the Lunar Census Bureau, which never attained any staff. New Lunar Republic Constitution Language The New Lunar Republic spoke English, but one of its members, NathanielPuguan, spoke Filipino and English. Government The New Lunar Republic Constitution declared the law and rules for governing the New Lunar Republic. It cannot be recalled whether or not the constitution was implemented. Legislative Legislative power lay in the Lunar Parliament, but only if there were more than four or more members of parliament. If there were less than this, all power would reside in the Prime Minister. Parliament members (MPs) would be chosen by popular vote, and have six month terms. MPs were required to meet activity quotas by performing legislative actions. Failure to meet these quotas resulted first in a probation period, which simply acted as a warning. A second occurrence would result in the MP losing their seat, and the Prime Minister would have to approve of them returning to their office as MP. There was also a cap on the maximum number of parliament members set to ten MPs. Any citizen in the NLR could nominate themselves for an MP seat if they had been a member for more than 30 days. The resolution system of the NLR was the same as that of the LBP Union's, where a proposal must be endorsed by half of the MPs in order to go to vote, and then a two thirds majority must vote on the proposal in order for it to have the chance to become a resolution. It would have been the Prime Minister's duty to call parliamentary meetings monthly, but the Lunar Parliament never had any members. Executive Curiously, the Lunar Constitution recognized the fictional My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic character Princess Luna as the sovereign matriarch of the clan. According to Prime Minister M88youngling, this was a satirical joke and meant to capture the style of the New Lunar Republic's theme. Actual executive power was held by the Prime Minister. The only Prime Minister in the NLR's existence was M88youngling. The Prime Minister had no term limit, but could be ousted by a vote of no confidence by the parliament. The Prime Minister had the power to approve or deny new members to the NLR, as well as eject members of the clan by vote of all the other subordinate ministers. The Lunar Parliament had the ability to override any decision made by the Prime Minister by a resolution. If the other ministers agreed, the Prime Minister had the ability to make pacts and treaties with other organizations. The New Lunar Republic had several other minister positions. The Secretary of State was the equivalent of the second in command for the clan, and was in charge of stepping in for the Prime Minister in his absence. The Secretary of State also was charged with managing the Lunar Census Bureau and general domestic affairs. The clan also had ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Security, and Intelligence. None of these minister positions were ever filled. Judicial Judicial power in the NLR was held by the Prime Minister, but any decision of justice could be overridden by the parliament. The constitution also enabled the appointment of a Lord Attorney General which could represent the NLR should the state be a party. Citizenship and Rules Unlike the Novus Carta, the New Lunar Republic did not require 'citizens' to have LittleBigPlanet, but all citizens did have the game. Citizens were required to meet activity quotas to retain membership. The NLR had rules preventing activities like Heart for Heart, harassing and bullying other players, and discrimination against other players. LBP Union Membership Statehood with the LittleBigPlanet Union was written into the Lunar Constitution, making the NLR the only clan to have such a provision written into their constitution. Written before the establishment of the Union Commission, the Lunar Constitution allowed the Prime Minister to choose one Union representative, while the Parliament could choose two representatives democratically. This in theory was to allow the general population of the NLR to have a greater say in Union affairs than the Prime Minister. Royal Lunar Armed Forces The constitution established the Royal Lunar Armed Forces, which was intended to help organize counter-trolling efforts. This was based off of previous successes with the Union Task Force, where organized grief-reporting was successful in Operation Lunar Storm. Another primary function of NLR defense policy was to encourage everyone, even those not affiliated with the armed forces, to engage in anti-bullying tactics like reporting, blocking, and 'ignoring' trolls and bullies to starve them of attention. The RLAF planned to participate in a police action or a possible black ops operation against RazorsonEdge and his affiliates in a counter-troll campaign called Operation Nightfall, but this never occurred. The RLAF never grew beyond eight members. The Lunar military had an XP ranking system, where members could gain XP by contributing to the clan to advance in rank. The Royal Lunar Armed Forces had an organizational hierarchy, from largest to smallest, battalions, platoons, and then squads. Squads were composed of four members, platoons of two squads, and battalions of two platoons. Each division had a codename fitting the night theme of the NLR. The only battalion was the 1st Airborne "Nightmare" Battalion. Its platoons were 1st "Arcturus" Platoon and the 2nd "Perseids" Platoon. In the 1st Platoon, there were two squads, Tantabus and Nightstalker squads. 2nd Platoon had Boogieman and Red Moon squads. None of these divisions were ever completely filled except for Tantabus squad for a brief period of time. The armed forces had a system of differentiating active members from inactive ones. Inactive members were categorized as "reserve" and active members as "active duty." Primevaliam was the commander of the 1st Airborne Battalion, but his troops saw no action. Individual members of the Royal Lunar Armed Forces had four different paths to choose for their roles. Recruits could become riflemen, combat engineers, enroll in the officers academy, or in a special case they could become part of the Lunar Royal Guard Brigade. Riflemen were intended to be focused on general purpose operations and regular activities, with less of a creative focus. Combat engineers were intended to be the same but with a more technical and creative focus, making military content. The officer's academy was intended to help give members a well rounded instruction to advanced creative techniques and leadership. The Lunar Royal Guard Brigade was the RLAF's special forces unit, the most skilled of the New Lunar Republic's military. This would have been closely related to the Union Task Force, which members of the LRGB would have had a high chance of being a part of.Unfinished NLR Recruitment Menu Culture and Style The New Lunar Republic utilized a darker style based on a hypothetical state ruled by Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's sovereign of the night. However, M88youngling's New Lunar Republic was farther removed from the My Little Pony fandom and was focused on a more realistic, human interpretation of the night-state. The stickers used for its wall art were borrowed from Turan Empire. The main level used to show off wall art for the NLR was the Ares Arena, the arena used for the LBPU Swordfighting Tournament. The clan claimed "Midnight Citadel" to be its capital city. Event Participation The New Lunar Republic had the highest representation of players in the LBPU Swordfighting Tournament that it hosted. All tournament matches that occurred had at least one fighter from the NLR competing. These were CapnParkour, Primevaliam, Racerboyjr88, and Metin_Sniper12. The high density of NLR players resulted in them being pitted against each other, with Primevaliam fighting Racerboyjr88 in the second round of the tournament. Infrastructure The New Lunar Republic had ambitious plans for its infrastructure. M88youngling was working on an advanced recruitment menu for the group, which showcased the various jobs that could be undertaken in the clan. Had the project been fully completed, members would have been given a choice between the NLR's Foreign Office, Royal Lunar Armed Forces, or the Civilian Conservation Corps. Foreign Office The New Lunar Republic's Foreign Office was designed to provide a direct outlet for members to volunteer in core Union departments. The areas of focus were the Union Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Union Census Bureau, the Union Peacekeepers, and the Union Intelligence Agency. Civilian Conservation Corps One of the planned civilian organizations to help create new levels and content was the NLR Civilian Conservation Corps, named after the early 20th century New Deal public service project. NathanielPuguan was appointed director of the CCC, but nothing was ever accomplished in the organization. No jobs were established within the CCC either, but they would have been aimed at improving the state of the clan and making fun, entertaining content. Communication The New Lunar Republic communicated on the LBP Union's first Discord server, but very few members managed to join the server. References Category:Clans Category:LBPU Clans Category:Active clans Category:2016